QUESTION
she's going for 1/2 my money, been married 1 yr. all assets acquired before marriage.
Asked on Jan 13th, 2014 on Divorce - Florida
More details to this question:
we were married in naples and lived in northeast fl 6 months, then lived in naples the past 6 months. she recently filed for divorce in naples fl. asking for 1/2 my money in bank 159k. i did add her to an acct that had 120k in it i had acquired before we met. bought a truck in both our names, paid for our living expenses. she didn't work at all and i didn't work the last 6 months of our marriage. i paid all the bills, her house payments, paid off her debts, her college, etc. she wrote a check to herself for 32k. she wants the truck, the 32k, and 159k from me. what am i suppose to do?
1 ANSWER
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If you added her name to the bank account, then she is half owner of the account and can legally claim rights to half. Had you kept your premarital money in a separate account with only your name on it, then she would have no claim to it. The same applies to the truck, if it was titled in both your names, then it is half hers. When you place your separate non-marital assets in joint names, you essentially are giving a gift to the other person equal to half the value of the asset. As for paying for living expenses, and her not working, that is unfortunate, but you would not have a claim for reimbursement of any of that. What you need to do is hire a divorce lawyer, and respond to her divorce petition, file a financial affidavit and sort out what is marital and what is your separate property. Hopefully you can resolve this at mediation.
Answered on Jan 14th, 2014 at 1:55 PM